Ruth Roofing Grimsrud
My heart goes out to the Rollins family. I have known all of you since you were babies! I was a teenager when your father was called as branch president in Newberg. He was also the seminary teacher, branch organist, choir director, and was working at the post office. I came over to babysit Tara, Trina, and Tonya, when Scott was born!
My mother, Sister Roozing, and I took a trip to Minnesota after Hardie and Lorna were first married, and brought some items from Lee and Ediths', that your parents didn't have room to take with them. They were in Rock Springs, Wyoming! It was a very hot day, and such a dry and desolate place! My mother looked at Lorna, asked her how she was feeling, and then told her she had better take care of herself because she was pregnant! Your mom was shocked, but later found out my mom was right!
When your father was my seminary teacher, our class TP'd the tree in their front yard when he announced they were going to have another baby (Scott)!
Newberg did a building fund project of catching. If we went chicken catching on a week night, we could miss seminary the next morning. We did a lot of chicken catching, and your dad had a chance to sleep a little longer.
Seminary was in the old Seventh Day Adventist school building out on North Main. Hardie would get there an hour before we did to get the old oil furnace going and warm up the cold, drafty, old, building. We got to use the building for free because it had been vacant for many years, and since we were having church at the Seventh Day Adventist building, they let us use it for free! I don't think your father ever missed a day of seminary!
Our class consisted of Rex Barnett, Kevin Hendershot, Phil Gerla, Todd and Eric Aho, David McMillen, Lorrie Doede and her brother, and myself, and that was just a start for all the people he taught over the years!
Back then, New Years Eve was a family event! We had big potlucks games, and later in the evening we would have a "branch dance"! We held it in the Newberg Armory. After about 9pm the little kids would be tired, parents would put them down on a stack of coats in one corner, and the dancing would start! Your father would bring in your family organ, a few other people would bring whatever they played, and we would have a band!
Your father and Sandy Barnett, (Ramsey) also helped write our branch Roadshow skits. We won a few times, which was really great because Salem Stake had some very good musicians, and competition was tight! The one I remember the most was "Omnibus on a Bus"!
Brother Hardie Rollins was a great example of a father, a leader, a teacher, and someone truly dedicated to his family and his Father in Heaven. I feel privileged to have had his example in my life, and I am grateful to your family and their example to my father, who was not a member until after my sister and I were adults. My father loved your parents, and always kept track of all the babies! My mother was a visiting teacher for your Grandma Edith for many years, and I remember when your parents got married!
I just hope you all realize what a blessing it is, and was, to have had the family you did!
With love,
Ruth Roozing Grimsrud
